Customer Reviews

The Complete Enderby : Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, the Clockwork Testament, Enderby's Dark Lady

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In these novels, Anthony Burgess has done more to de-mystify the creative process (and those who persue it) than any other modern writer. His protagonist, F. X. Enderby, professional English poet, is as flawed as any character ever created. From his almost constant malapropisms down to his bodily emissions, he is every person with true human frailties. He stumbles his way through everyday conversations (often both misunderstanding and misunderstood) while at the same time offending almost everyone he comes into contact with. He is incapable of handling life in the "real" world and is shamelessly exploited by those who do.

In spite of his human failings, Enderby produces things of great beauty. The delicately worded, well balanced verses offer a wonderful counterpoint to Enderby's social ineptitudes and lack of common sense.

There is also a fairly strong political angle in the books which readers in today's society should heed. Censorship, that demon of modern P.C. sensibility, is discussed here intelligently and honestly. Bear in mind, these books are fairly old and some of the racial and sexual comments made in them will reflect this. However, I think you will find a certain balance in their use; everyone gets it in the end. Including Enderby.

Burgess is probably the most underrated writer in English in the last half of the twentieth century. This collection of somewhat autobiographical novels about F.X. Enderby is on the surface an inventive jaunt about the globe and on little slips of paper, collecting half-noticed experience and half-lines of eventual poetry. Nabokov said that his work was (is?) most appreciated when the reader assumed the point-of-view not of the protagonist, but of the author or fashioner. Burgess is tricky on this point and seems to have played with the difficulty in this distinction throughout his career, making the character who is the narrator assume some part of the creation of the finished work and putting some part of himself in the animated speaker. I hope that in the near future this and other of Burgess' works (I'm reading Earthly Powers now) find a new audience because there is a great deal to enjoy and to absorb. He wrote a great deal and much of it is very great

"Inside Mr. Enderby," is wonderful and off beat. "Enderby Outside," follows the off kilter story of Enderby and the absurdity that is his life. "The Clockwork Testament," as the title would suggest, has shadings of Burgess' very well known book, "Clockwork Orange." The "Testament," is surreal and twisted while funny at the same time. The final story, "Enderby's Dark Lady," is wonderful and surprising to the reader with value not only for fans of the dyspeptic poet but lovers of Shakespeare as well.

While slightly dated, these stories have a bite to them that speaks volumes of truth for anyone who has been an academic, a professional writer or just a little bit out of touch with the world around them. Enderby is often misunderstood and though he makes his living in a "communication" field, he has a lot of trouble getting his point across to others.

Not only are these books funny, but as is often the case with Burgess, the satire is thinly veiled and pointing at both society and himself.

The first thing to say about these books is that they're very funny. - They're very funny! - I spent several nights during the reading of them chuckling myself to sleep over the Enderbian maladventures I had ingested during my day's reading. They're also an uproarious satire of (and I'm sure to be leaving several things/groups/people out):

Postwar England
Poetry Awards
Women's Magazines
Magazines of any sort
Rome
Papism
Avaricious-Papist-Magazine editing women
Poets who sell out
Modern avant-garde film
Psychiatry (Big one here)
Psychiatrists (Even Bigger)
Pop Music
Pop Music Stars
Selenologists
Randy women Selenologists
Beat poets
The film industry in general
America
The American Bicentennial
Creative writing students
Women Creative Writing students
Black (Or, er, Afro-American) Creative Writing students
Talk shows
Subways
New York City
American women -"These American women were very straightforward people, quick to disclose their madness." P.534
American men - "The men were a bit slower." P.534
Spiritualist sessions
Hiberno-American Anti-Anglo sentiments
Theatre people
The American spelling of "Theater"
Anyone who dares to mess with Shakespeare

Well, that will do for starters. What makes all this satire, um, digestible, so to speak, is there is really no vitriol in it (or, well, not very much) and, further, what makes it actually palatable is that one is so busy pitying poor Enderby, in the first two books at least, that the verbal cuts, often hidden among Enderbian musings, hit us so often at unawares. Also, the old-fashioned poet trying to heed his Muse and not sully himself with the modern world catches it the most.

There is, though, a problem that another reviewer has pointed out - The problem of identifying with either Enderby or Burgess - or perhaps Enderburgess. The first two books, Inside Mr. Enderby and Enderby Outside, are much superior, in my mind, to the last two books. Here, Enderby is a character separate from Burgess. Yes, it's still partly autobiographical, but not SO autobiographical that one feels one is reading about Burgess himself, which is the sense that overwhelmed at least this reader while poring over (still chuckling, mind you) The Clockwork Testament and Enderby's Dark Lady.

Finally, there is something more to all this than just laughs (though these certainly help things along). Enderburgess truly believes in the sacredness of poetry and the poet's mission. He heartily defends them against the slings and arrows of the modern world, much to his sadness and discomfiture, it must be said.

The girl who comes to Enderby at the end of Enderby Outside, and serves, more or less, as his Muse incarnate, intones:

"When Shelley said what he said about poets being the unacknowledged legislators of the world, he wasn't really using fancy language. It's only by the exact use of words that people can begin to understand themselves." P.358 This is the Enderburgessian motto, the recurrent theme throughout the book. I can think of no better one with which to laugh and learn or relearn the poet's mission.

Leave it to Burgess to create a poet so quirky, so outrageous and neurotic that you have to laugh at every page of his misdaventures. Whether offending strangely clad women in a gay bar or defending himself with a toilet seat, this man lives and was not just created. Clueless about the machinations around him and the pathetic hangers on that want to steal some of his glory, in his poet Burgess paints a disspiriting picture of the 1970s literary scene in London. His world is nightmarish, if leavened by a poet's vision and uncontrollable, irrepressible creativity.

Highly recommended and certainly one his best.

Agreed with the above reviews; Burgess seems to have been typecast as the guy that wrote Clockwork Orange and wasn't that a violent movie?...

Before reading the Complete Enderby, A Clockwork Orange was the only Burgess book I'd read and I remembered it as written in a dense, sort of russian/english patois that it was sometimes hard to follow. I didn't think that Anthony Burgess would/could be 'a fun read'

I was very pleasantly surprised to find the Enderby novels very accessible, very entertaining, very funny.

Linguistic pyrotechnics, complete plot control but with a willingness to go completely off topic if he feels like it, a love for the quirkiness of character, respect for poetry and poets but not blind respect; so he'll look at some of the aspects of poets and poetry-writing with an eye to making fun.

There's also some biting societal commentary that, considering 1965 as copyright for the first one, doesn't feel too dated.

I'd maybe describe this as Cormac McCarthy writing A Confederacy of Dunces. This would probably annoy Mr. Burgess, but I think that fans of either would enjoy these books.

Having all four novels in one omnibus edition is a luxury I would strongly recommend. You're not forced to read them straight through but you have the option.

As others have said; Enderby may be one of the most amazing characters ever invented. One reviewer echoed my sentiments when he said that the sequels were a little uneven. True enough. But overall, Enderby's character remains profound. In places Enderby equals or surpasses many humorous books. My sides literally ached at times. This is one of those books that you should not read while drinking liquids; you may find them coming out your nose or ears from laughter.

No one mentioned that this book is a direct product and result of Burgess having been given the diagnosis of inoperable brain cancer. So this book sprung from that mental state, and therefore tries to cover huge amounts of territory, mostly successfully. From bodily functions to facing old-age and death, Enderby comes through. Of course, Burgess went on for quite a few more years and wrote, who knows how many, other novels after Enderby!

Burgess has never gotten the credit he deserves. Read Enderby. If you've never read A Clockwork Orange, get that too! It's a masterpiece of futuristic punk. Then watch the Kubrick movie. Unforgettable.....

Love Burgess, and Inside Mr. Enderby I already read two times, but I found the sequels rather irregular. Enderby Outside is a sequel always intended - Burgess couldn't finish the novel and published it as Inside..- I found it similar to Inside and boring in the final. A Clockwork Testament was though short very enjoyable. Enderby's Dark Lady promise a interesting plot but after a while don't progress...I got so bored I quitted a few pages from the end of the book.

out of 3000+ books I have read. Much better reading than Clockwork Orange. Be with Mr. Enderby as he cooks, makes love and disses the Beatles. I would recommend the first book in the series to anyone. The subsequent books are not quite as good but better than most fiction.

And if you disagree with me, for cough